Big Rock Candy Mountain

The very idea of a spill of countless coins waiting to be scooped up in a serendipitous display of riches to boggle a child's mind, could only be improved upon by the accompanying scattering of confections and candy, each outdoing the other in presence, compelling attention and a scramble to acquire them, perhaps in equal measure.

Which, after all, might have more meaning to a child, the candies or the coins? Coins, after all, have their use in the acquisition of candies. But if the candies are already present, what need for the coins?

So perhaps the discerning child would realize that a collection of coins would be useful for other things as well, and a matching amount of coins and confections would make sense for that child. While others might spurn the presence of gleaming coins and seek instead to gather for themselves mouth-watering candies.

But this was, of course, not a candy mountain. It was a highway in northern Ontario, where the road had been blasted through rocky terrain, leaving on either side of the highway, a rising rock-face paralleling the road. A misfortune occurred, when the driver of a Brink's security truck somehow left the median, and crashed into the rock face on the opposite side.

The driver and passenger sustained serious injuries and were rushed to hospital.

And the result of the accident was immediately apparent with the highway completely strewn with the entire cargo of that Brink's armoured truck; uncirculated loonies and toonies, amounting to a cool $3-millions' worth in value. Spilling out of the truck, those round metallic disks were free to scatter where they would, all over the roadway and the surrounding area.

But the drama was not yet complete. A tractor-trailer in a northbound direction and then a minivan crashed into the Brink's truck in their turn. And then, a third tractor-trailer, this one hauling candy, hit the rear of the second-tractor-trailer, spilling its load of confections. No serious injuries occurred among those involved in the succeeding crashes.

"There's $4-million in one- and two-dollar coins on the highway along with a considerable amount of confections and candy", reported an attending constable of the South Porcupine OPP. The highway was thereafter blocked in both directions for hours. With police on the scene to provide security, until the coins were collected.

"This is rather unusual. I'd hazard to guess that this is the first time in the detachment's history that we've had to investigate a collision of this scale and its uniqueness speaks for itself", said police. A giant magnet was brought onto the scene, and immediately put to work. So much for the coins.

An enterprising class of Grade 5s would have done a bang-up job collecting the candies....